Insight
With Rudy Demotte, Walloon Minister-President
What is the Walloon government doing to attract investment and trade to southern Belgium? To find out, AmCham Connect spoke with Rudy Demotte, Minister-President of the Walloon Government.
AmCham Connect (ACC): What sets the Walloon Region apart from other European regions?
Demotte: Wallonia is not the largest region in Europe, but we have a long history with the United States in terms of economic development. American companies have invested in Wallonia for decades and today remain our number one investor.
ACC: What are the challenges of doing business in Wallonia?
Demotte: The challenges are the same as doing business anywhere else and include local market practices, culture and customs, legal requirements, political trends, currency regulations and language norms. This is why the Wallonia Government, assisted by local and regional development agencies here and abroad, work together to assist American companies facing these challenges and helping to eliminate most of the unnecessary steps involved in the process of setting up a business.
And it doesn’t stop there!
Since we know that today’s investors will become tomorrow’s exporters, we are very involved with aftercare. It is essential to find out the future needs of companies that are settled here and to continue to help them expand their business.
ACC: What is the government doing to attract investment and trade to the region?
Demotte: The government’s approach is really to work with the investor as a team. Dedicated policies and smart initiatives are regularly implemented to help our economic situation. Among many, I would like to mention two of the most popular policies – facilitating and promoting production of green energies and the regional cash grant incentives for R&D support.
The political strategy for these initiatives has been translated into an operational plan called Plan Marshall 2.Vert, which focuses on five priorities: training in high and leading sectors, R&D and innovation, tax relief for companies, stimulating new activities and creating six poles of competitiveness. In the framework of competitiveness, Wallonia is committed to increasing activity in the life sciences, aerospace and aeronautics, transportation and distribution, agribusiness, mechanical engineering and green technologies. (See Boxed Text ‘Staying Competitive’)
The Marshall Plan initiative has been really successful. To date, it has contributed to the creation of 27,000 direct jobs and has had an impact on 11,000 companies. Furthermore, 125 researchers were hired and five million hours of training have been financed from the Plan.
AWEX has numerous offices worldwide that actively reach out to companies showing an intention of investing in Western Europe. These offices serve as a local contact for potential foreign investors and are supported by a dedicated team in Wallonia.
ACC: Do you think the regional approach to foreign trade and investment - as opposed to a more national one - confuses foreign businesses or causes Belgium to compete against itself?
Demotte: Foreign trade and investment is indeed a competency of the regions and it is a good thing considering the different assets of each region. It is certainly not confusing to an American eye, as in both countries the regions or states are in charge of economic development.
The only concern we have is with the historic image of Wallonia. We suffer from an out-of-date, bad image of being a dark and heavy mining region. Although true to an extent, it is part of our past, it has nothing to do with today’s assets.
We promote our ‘know-how’ through various campaigns, such as 10 Good Reasons to Invest in Wallonia, Creative Wallonia and other initiatives abroad like seminars, conferences, economic missions, business clubs, discussions, and so on.
We are also initiating a branding campaign for Wallonia. Our goal is to put a global and positive image on Wallonia’s identity and values. We are creating marketing tools usable by every citizen, company and administration. And we are increasing Wallonia’s visibility in a variety of dimensions, not just in the economy, but also in culture, tourism and the environment.
ACC: What effect has the political situation in Belgium had on businesses in Wallonia and do you think the current situation affects the level of the country’s direct foreign investments and exports?
Demotte: The federal political situation has only had a moderate impact on Belgium’s image.
The government of Wallonia has always been operating at full-force, so companies have never suffered from political uncertainty on an operational basis.
The 2010 foreign investment figures prove the economic climate is still positive, despite the financial crisis and Belgium’s lack of federal government. Further, major US companies like Caterpillar, Johnson & Johnson, Baxter, Microsoft and Google, just to name a few, have proved their continuing confidence in our region by investing here and even announcing significant expansions.
In addition, exports have been growing steadily since 2002, enjoying a 50% increase during this time. The only time we saw a decrease was prior to the elections, and this was due to the financial crisis. Even so, figures show Wallonia suffered less than our competitors during this period.